Public Option Now Has Legs in Senate

From Dems who swing right to left-leaning GOPers, debate promises suspense

(NEWSER) - As health care reform bills merge and change on the Senate floor, the pool of legislators to watch has grown. The Wall Street Journal takes a look:

• Olympia Snowe, R-Maine: Her vote for the Finance Committee bill was clutch, but "doesn't forecast what my vote will be tomorrow," she says.
• Susan Collins, R-Maine: The more conservative of the Maine senators would be a great catch for Dems, but she's even more opposed to a public option than Snowe.

Measure that should have saved money will cost an arm and a leg

(NEWSER) - The Senate health reform bill is all fire and brimstone for the folks over at Firedoglake . The “con job” legislation “isn’t a ‘starter home,’ it’s a sink hole,” Jane Hamsher writes, and “it needs to die so something else can take its place.” Why, you ask? Ten reasons:

• $$$: "Forces you to pay up to 8% of your income to private insurance corporations."
• More $$$: "Penalties of up to 2% of your annual income" if you don't buy insurance.

Screwy Senate has a flawed, but good bill

(NEWSER) - The health care bill is as good as it’s going to get, and progressives whining about it—or worse, trying to kill it—are being ridiculous. “In a normal democracy,” EJ Dionne writes, the majority support would quickly pass a public option or Medicare expansion. But the “bizarre habits of the Senate” mean “we are no longer a normal democracy,” and "power has passed to tiny minorities, sometimes minorities of one" More»

If there is one, which we hope there isn't. Good idea, say Dems.

(NEWSER) - In the circus that is the Senate these days, a couple of anti-public-option Republicans—Tom Coburn and David Vitter—rolled out an amendment to the health care bill Friday requiring members of Congress to enroll in any such plan that might come to pass. When Dems didn’t object—Sherrod Brown, Chris Dodd, and Al Franken tried to cosponsor, but were rebuffed—GOP senators upped the ante and added in the president. The amended amendment would extend the mandate to the whole executive branch. More»

Say legislation isn't aggressive enough on fee-for-service model

(NEWSER) - Some Democrats in the Senate are worried that reform legislation under consideration doesn't do enough to rein in out-of-control health care spending. President Obama has promised $2 trillion in savings over the next 10 years, but critics say the proposed changes aren't nearly aggressive enough on the current pay-per-visit system favored by doctors and hospital groups. More»